This invention relates to a printer, particularly a printer operatively associated with an electronic weigher and capable of having its printing format changed at will.
The conventional drum-type label printer is adapted to print information on a label. The printer prints the name of a product by using a product name stamp, as well as such numerical information as the weight and price of the product, this information being printed out using numerical type. A label printer of this kind does not permit the position or size of the product stamps and numerical type to be changed at will. Even a dot label printer comes equipped with only one printing control program for use with the particular machine, so that only one format is available for the label used.
Items of information printed on a label include, e.g., an indication of the additives contained in the product, a bar code which enables the product code or price to be read by an optical reader, and the effective date of the product. Depending upon the kind of product and the conditions of sale, there are cases where some of these items are unnecessary. In such situations it is required that the type positions be changed for the relevant labels upon taking into consideration the particular information that is to be printed. However, such a change is not possible with the conventional label printer.
An electronic weigher generally is equipped with a label printer for printing such information as the unit price and total price of a product on a label, and a separate journal printer is provided as an accessory for printing out such information as the total of proceeds taken in over a fixed period (such as the day's takings or the takings over a predetermined length of time). Specifically, when necessary, the journal printer prints out, on a sheet of paper for binding in a journal, the proceeds over the fixed period as stored in a memory device or register. There are situations where the printing format of the journal printer differs depending upon the kind of electronic weigher used. For example, the journal printer operatively associated with one variety of electronic weigher may be adapted to print both the product name code and the total proceeds for that product on the same line of paper, whereas a journal printer operatively associated with a different electronic weigher may print the product name code on one line and the total proceeds for that product on the following line. Thus, a journal printer, whose printing format is set to that required by the electronic weigher associated therewith, must be used exclusively for that particular weigher. This means that a journal printer is required for each individual electronic weigher.